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November 28, 2007
BI on BI? Big Iron Still Delivers Data Punch
Big iron -- mainframes -- can be a powerful platform for managing BI data. Many organizations run their data warehouses on mainframes. However, many mainframes still lock data away into silos, requiring a lot of effort to extract information into systems running BI and analytic tools. That's some of the findings of a new survey of 430 members of the SHARE, which is primarily the IBM mainframe user group. I conducted and published the study as part of my work with Unisphere Research, which manages surveys for many user groups. The new SHARE study reveals that many mainframe systems are at the center of efforts to achieve enterprise data integration, as well as to extend applications into service-oriented architectures. Mainframes are evolving into a leading role both as a source of mission-critical data, as well as key services. However, the survey also revealed that most mainframe data is still locked up, and most integration efforts are still done with hand-coded scripting. There are proactive efforts underway to better integrate mainframe data with more distributed data environments, and to be able to deliver this data in real time, meaning within seconds. In addition, many organizations are showing an interest in service-oriented architecture (SOA) as a way to better leverage mainframe resources. The study found that at least half of the surveyed sites still use hand-coded scripts to move data from their mainframes to other platforms or databases. Mainframes store and manage much of an organization's enterprise data. However, most of this data remains inaccessible in these environments. In addition, most mainframe sites share only a small portion of their data across enterprise systems. A majority, however, do need to make what data is available viewable on a real-time basis. SOA is also an important initiative at many SHARE member sites. Close to one out of four respondents' companies have SOA efforts now in progress, and another one-third are planning or considering SOA. At least half of these efforts will employ mainframes in a central role. Most SOA efforts do not yet have an enterprise reach. However, many companies are preparing SOA to meet real-time requirements. Approximately 40 percent of companies are deploying or considering event-driven architecture-seen as a real-time adapting of SOA. Posted by joemckendrick in Business Intelligence | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) November 26, 2007The 10 Largest Databases in the World
Remember the days when a terabyte was really a LOT of data? That's about what you find in a laptop these days. For REALLY big databases, Business Intelligence Lowdown provides the list of the 10 largest databases in the world. Interestingly, the database didn't necessarily have to be digital to make the list. Here they are in ascending order: 10) US Library of Congress: 130 million items (books, photographs, maps, etc), 20 TBs of text 9) Central Intelligence Agency: Classified, of course 8) Amazon: 42 TBs of data 7) YouTube: 45 TBs of videos 6) ChoicePoint: 250 TBs of data 5) Sprint: TBs not shown, but the carrier has 2.85 trillion database rows 4) Google: You knew they had to be on this list. 91 million searches per day reported. 3) AT&T: 323 TBs of information 2) National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center: 2.8 petabytes 1) World Data Centre for Climate: 220 TBs of Web data, 6 petabytes of additional data Posted by joemckendrick in Data Management | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) Looking Back at BI -- From the Year 2018
Will 2008 be the year that the long-fragmented BI market finally starts to congeal? Ten years from now, will mega-BI platforms be as commonplace as mega-ERP systems? Is this a good thing? Noted BI analyst William McKnight says this is exactly what is happening. With the wave of acquisitions that swept the BI world over the past year, companies may finally start to rally around popular solutions. As he notes in a recent blog post: "I think the business books in 2018 will look favorably on the recent moves of SAP, Microsoft, IBM and Oracle. The signal that BI had evolved to this point in maturity was when Oracle bought Hyperion." Don't expect an immediate market makeover, however. "I don’t expect the recent acquisitions to impact clients for quite some time," William says. He advises companies to start looking at the emerging suite solutions out there -- "to look ahead and figure out who they want to be in their approach to the market – a mega-vendor purchaser with a relationship and a commensurate built-in culture, or a company who values independence and will incubate their own culture. I believe 2008 will start to bring back the notion a 'primary' vendor." Posted by joemckendrick in Business Intelligence | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) A Lot of Unstructured Data Out There
In a survey of 238 IT decision-makers in North American and Great Britain, the Taneja Group found that 53 percent of the respondents had 11 terabytes or more of unstructured data. That's a lot of data that falls outside the limits of databases and other data management environments. Paul Weinberg provides details on the study in a recent blog post. Sixty-two percent of the respondents indicated that their unstructured data was growing between 16 and 75 percent a year. The major drivers for unstructured data growth among survey respondents are Microsoft Office (78 percent), email attachments (66 percent), and backup and archival (81 percent). The challenge, Taneja analysts said, was to provide centralized security and control of the data, while leaving the data physically in place. Technology approaches to managing unstructured data include file virtualization, WAN optimization, WAFS, clustered storage, distributed file systems, and network file management. However, most unstructured data is likely to be left alone for the foreseeable future, Steve Norall, senior analyst and consultant at the Taneja Group, is quoted as saying. Perhaps one of the greatest challenges to effective business intelligence and analytics is being able to capture these more serendipitous sources of knowledge. In fact, this has given rise to an entire industry, the content management and knowledge management sector. However, perhaps only a small percentage of these unstructured files are relevant to operations at hand. How can we sift through and distinguish what's relevant, and what's superfluous? That's the next frontier of BI. Posted by joemckendrick in Data Management | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) November 12, 2007IBM to Acquire Cognos: What's the Deal With That?
The whale swallows the biggest fish. Billions of dollars flow. In September, Cognos made big news in the BI-data management world when it acquired Applix. Now, Cognos itself is about to be ingested by Big Blue. Is this a dynamic, consolidating, paradigm-shifting, evoluting, revoluting market, or what?! Some details: IBM and Cognos today announced that the two companies have entered into a definitive agreement for IBM to acquire Cognos for approximately $5 billion. (The acquisition, of course, is subject to Cognos shareholder approval, regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. It is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008.) Lately, the trend for big infrastructure vendors has been to grab a BI company to add business intelligence to their portfolios. Oracle has Hyperion, SAP has Business Objects, and now IBM has Cognos. A remaining BI company that has not been reeled in is SAS. IBM said it has already made 23 major acquisitions to build its "Information on Demand" initiative. Acquired players include Princeton Softech (data archiving and compliance), FileNet (enterprise content management), Ascential Software (information integration), DataMirror (changed data capture), SRD (entity analytics), Trigo (product information management), DWL (customer information management) and Alphablox (analytics). What do IBM and Cognos get out of the deal? IBM said the Cognos acquisition would help it reach further into CFOs’ offices with financial planning tools. The acquisition will also provide a broader reach for Cognos solutions across multiple industries and geographies with a more complete set of offerings, including consulting services, hardware, and other middleware software. Following completion of the acquisition, IBM intends to integrate Cognos as a group within IBM's Information Management Software division, focused on Business Intelligence and Performance Management. IBM also will appoint current Cognos President and CEO, Rob Ashe, to lead the group. In other words, bye bye, Cognos, it's been real nice. More information on IBM's acquisition of Cognos is available on IBM's investor Website. Posted by joemckendrick in BI Vendor Watch | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) November 06, 2007Who's What: Among BI Vendors
Alex Fletcher, over at the IT Gumbo site, provides an excellent list of who's what among leading vendors in the BI space. Of particular interest is this whole category of "Lightweight BI," which includes search providers, and I have a feeling this is a space to watch with the growth of the Web 2.0 approach to helping end-users solve business problems quickly, without the need for a three-year technology acquisition plan. Posted by joemckendrick in BI Vendor Watch | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) |
